Marani Brands Inc. (MRIB)

[Matthew Berg]

JP (love the alias by the way!)

I certainly don't have it all figured out. I can't even cut through the corporate gyrations and machinations to even understand a tenth of what has been done there. The internal conflicts of interest with crossed board between the company and investors who got free stock is an absolute maze. But I will say that the numbers speak for themselves.

Sure they have product. Not much of it but it makes a great vehicle given you can touch, feel and taste it. And I haven't tried it and the consensus that it tastes good but given the numbers that premise as a basis for success is running thin.

Brazil is a joke. Their partner there has gone dark. A one man shop in a downtown Rio office who has never sold spirits and seems to have no other clients. Had four but they all seemed to have dropped him months ago. Energy drink is actually rumored to be pressing charges for non-performance and misrepresentation. They all went dark before anything could be confirmed. But, it doesn't paint a pretty picture for the potential of a $100 million in contracts.

Commercials? I'll believe it when I see it. A 30 second spot on CNBC or SportsCenter runs a minimum of $20K and you have to buy a contract for a lot more than 1 ad to get that rate. They have no capacity to run even regional advertising let alone national. I suspect they'll do something in remnant regional to try and give the illusion of something more to come. You can get away with a couple grand on the regional garbage and late night. You know, the furniture clearances, local car dealerships, carpet clearances, etc. that you see on something like SportsCenter or CNBC but they're only seen through the local affiliate. People see that and they'll be screaming national advertising!!! It won't be. And the bottom line is that the ad is nowhere ready for production and truthfully it's really not very good. Bunch of stock video with some text overlays and a voiceover. Nothing sexy, nothing funny, nothing memorable, nothing unique. Intor to a website maybe... national ad? Never. Would be a total waste of money to air that POS. Probably took four hours to create with stock video of water, wheat and honey with a bottle overlay and some cheap software. Just a shabby composition with no theme or compelling content. And I agree with some other posters that the voiceover should have been female.

Gloom and doom? Yup. I know the numbers. Nothing but gloom and doom. Fiscal year will end with less than $10,000 in sales. Mark my words. I'd bet the farm on it. No new orders, no new shipments, no new retailers, no new distributors. What do you think? Third quarter is already done. You're looking at February 2015 before even getting a look at anything material.

Do I think it will tank? I don't know. Maybe the long and those terribly under water on it can keep it going but there are insiders who paid nothing for their stock. That's a powerful deterrent. They went dark in 2009 with the same game plan so in my opinion, yea, I think history is simply repeating itself as it always does. Good luck to you though JP. Just be careful. Read the 2008 and 2009 10K's. The similarity to the current situation is just too close.